Would just like to pipe in here that I LOVE the new rules. Especially the spellcasting. And reach.
One question though, just out of curiousity. i understand why a 10 is auto success, ive always wondered why Warlord doesn't go with a 1 as an auto miss. We had it house-ruled in. We liked it because it kind've represented a model having a hero moment and not dying when it probably should have, like when its DV is low and is attacked by a model that can't miss it. Also, it makes for some pretty interesting decisions when an attacking model is b2b with 2 or more figs, and one of those figs is on last track. the attacking player has to decide to just have 1 attack go the way of the model on its last track, or "making sure" by using 2 attacks on it, just in case they roll a 1. We liked it. Might house rule it again. Is there a reason for your decision not to include it?

I believe the reason was that if you've stacked odds so heavily in your favor that you will auto succeed you've pretty much deserved it. I only recall auto success happening maybe once or twice during most games. It's one of those things where I don't think house ruling it makes much of a difference to game balance or outcome since it comes up so rarely and probably affects the feel of the game more than it has a noticeable impact.

I'd go with whatever your local group thinks "feels right". I'd certainly not object to playing by that house rule if the other player felt it improved his enjoyment of the game significantly.

"Auto Miss" was discussed, and there are really just as many reasons to include such a rule as to not, except for 2 things.

1) We carefully evaluated anything that was to be changed from the original rules. The plan was to fix things that were broken, not change things just because we wanted or could. Although this is a new version has some drastic changes, it was also important to maintain some continuity with the previous edition. This was an example of something that could have been added, but would have gained little (for the reasons Kim suggests above) in the play of the game.

2) Our #1 goal in Warlord 2 was to make the game play faster again. Anything that slowed game play down was heavily scrutinized to see if it was really worth having in (such as Tough checks, which got a major overhaul and a drastic cut in the number of models with the SA). An Auto Miss rule has the potential to leave models on the board longer, and that contradicts this goal.

I'd like to keep the pinned post about the changes from Warlord 1.X to 2.0 clean of clutter so that folks looking to see the differences can just read through the list. I split off your posts and created an unpinned topic for folks to continue discussion any of the changes, or have questions about why A was moved to B etc.

Sacrificing minions: is there any problem it CAN'T solve?

- Lord Xykon, OotS #192

Beowulf ll. 1538-1543
... Pay no heed to proud thoughts, famous champion. Now the flowering of your strength is but for a while. After a while, the time will suddenly come that disease or the sword's edge will cut off your power. Either fire's grasp or flood's surge or blade's bite or spear's flight. Or vicious age, or the flash of your eyes will gutter and burn out! It will be all at once, great campaigner, that death will overpower you.

The biggest reason I left out the 'auto-1 misses' is because the SUCKIEST part of Warlord is those times when you say "hey, I just need to roll anything but a 1", and then you roll a 1. It is SUCH a negative feeling to have. I certainly don't want it happening 10% of the game!

The second reason was speed of play. Having 1's miss means 10% of all rolls will fail. While it doesn't slow the game down a ton, it certainly interrupts the flow and slows it down enough. Like Vince said above, 'Speed of Play' was one of our 'Big 3' overall goals when designing Warlord 2.

“There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way” - C.S. Lewis
"I'm not sure God wants us to be happy. I think he wants us to love, and be loved. But we are like children, thinking our toys will make us happy and the whole world is our nursery. Something must drive us out of that nursery and into the lives of others, and that something is suffering." - C.S. Lewis

I'm glad the new edition is out, with everything under one cover. All the addenda and updates for the first edition really put me off buying it. And I'm glad it's not a $40 rulebook.

~It's not broken.... it's a conversion. ~

"I got my brother and his six year old hooked last week. They were soon back at the friendly local for more. Starts with a cute lil unicorn, next thing you're onto griffins and purple worms." ~ Carnacki the Ghost Finder

Beowulf ll. 1538-1543
... Pay no heed to proud thoughts, famous champion. Now the flowering of your strength is but for a while. After a while, the time will suddenly come that disease or the sword's edge will cut off your power. Either fire's grasp or flood's surge or blade's bite or spear's flight. Or vicious age, or the flash of your eyes will gutter and burn out! It will be all at once, great campaigner, that death will overpower you.

Yes. Simply because of history.
A lot of people probably have trolls only for use with a Reven army.

Granted, I will probably use some of mine to proxy as Ogres for variety.

Sacrificing minions: is there any problem it CAN'T solve?

- Lord Xykon, OotS #192

Beowulf ll. 1538-1543
... Pay no heed to proud thoughts, famous champion. Now the flowering of your strength is but for a while. After a while, the time will suddenly come that disease or the sword's edge will cut off your power. Either fire's grasp or flood's surge or blade's bite or spear's flight. Or vicious age, or the flash of your eyes will gutter and burn out! It will be all at once, great campaigner, that death will overpower you.

I like the fact that instead of choosing "subfactions" which limit me to certain models within a faction, I now can choose a tactical style which only limits me in terms of certain special abilities. This way I can mix-match up my models and still play the style I like best.

The other thing I love is how magic is purchased. This is SO much better than the way it was. I no longer find myself having to second-guess what situations will arise so I don't end up with "useless" spells.

I also like that there are 0 point spells too, that are still useful, so a caster that doesn't have a secondary role is still actually useful when they run out of points to spend.

Sacrificing minions: is there any problem it CAN'T solve?

- Lord Xykon, OotS #192

Beowulf ll. 1538-1543
... Pay no heed to proud thoughts, famous champion. Now the flowering of your strength is but for a while. After a while, the time will suddenly come that disease or the sword's edge will cut off your power. Either fire's grasp or flood's surge or blade's bite or spear's flight. Or vicious age, or the flash of your eyes will gutter and burn out! It will be all at once, great campaigner, that death will overpower you.